Beast
The Bio-mechanical, infectious, subvertion entity. Aka, The "Beast". ATTENTION! THIS PAGE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION! History & Origin Altough no one really knows where it first came into being, it has become recent knowledge that it inhabits the "space between space", what some calls "The Warp", "Subspace", "Hyperspace", "Singularities" or "Quantum rifts". Short travel is still relatively safe from "infection". It is almost only when there is some sort of "anomaly" or when travelling massive distances through various layers of "under space", that a ship is infected by the entity. It is both theorized that its an ancient bio-warfare weapon gone wrong or an actual space born being evolved with spaceships as its natural prey. Both these assumptions are far-fetched, but no one has come up with anything better. First known recorded encounter is by the U.H.S.F. in their native universe, where they found and ancient alien derelict of exotic design. The unintentional release of this plague caused a long and bitter war that cast more than half of their galaxy into ruins. Hundreds of thousands of species lost. The only thing that managed to hold it off and in the end drive it out, was a unique shield design the U.H.S.F. ships incorporated and the strict self-destruction protocols their captains followed. Data derived from the derelict revealed it to be a giant beacon. The beacon had suffered some sort of massive systems failure and much of the data appeared to be corrupted. What little information decrypted tells a broken story of some sort of exploration vessel from a parallell world/universe/galaxy. It apparently used a massively powerful engine of sort. During its voyage in the "underspace", it picked something up on its hull. Shortly thereafter a heightened alert status was declared and the beacon was ejected, still in transit. It was shot out into normal space and drifted for a millennia or so until a U.H.S.F. Deepspace explorer found it. It is theorized that the rough transition to normal space caused the internal damage. No other references to the alien vessel has been found and its speculated that it has ended up in another universe. It also appears that the "Neo-Germans" have encountered the beast more than once in their past. Forming believes of "chaotic warp entities". Due to the recent "events" leading to the U.H.S.F. arriving in an uncharted universe, (now designated "PW", near the planet "PPW-4") has also opened the way for the beast to arrive, and is now "running loose" through out it. Since its origin is unknown and there are signs of encounters with other species no one knows how many have encountered this universal plague. Characteristics, Personality & Goal When a ship is infected in some way by the beast cells, (Which is small bio-mechanical 'things'), it quickly spreads into the ship and replicates by using both organic and inorganic material. The crew and other things that can be re-formed into usable organic base-stones are turned into a kind of "Bio-neural control network" that then controls the ship. It is easy to spot a beast ship. Newly infected ship, have their hull coated by a brownish biomass and reddish "veins". Their lights often turn red for some reason and exhaust often change tone and/or color. Given enough time and "food" (Resources), it can literally "grow" in size. Some theories about how it can bend and shape metal exists, but since its almost impossible to safely study a live beast sample or specimen, no one really knows. "Older" beast ships that have either survived several battles or found a place rich of "food" and "parts" while eventually transform into something very alien. Very little of the original ship(s) remains. It should be noted though, that there have been instances where infected and even subverted vessels have infiltrated fleets, causing their doom. It should be noted that when a ship has been subverted, it is a separate living entity, following the larger beasts commands. Beast ships are very often devoid of any com-chatter. This can be used to identify some newly infected beast ships, since many ships usually bristle with com-chatter. (It should be noted that the beast can actually mimic com-chatter to a certain degree.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnsGFe0Dn9g Average beast ship sounds. Personality/Pshyce Although the Beast may seem like a simple organism, it have proven again and again to be a resourceful and intelligent threat. One of the first things a beast entity does after subverting a vessel, is to go through the infected ships databases. It learns all there is to know from the data and then assesses the highest threat to its own existence. And then proceeds to try and infect it. It is like an intelligent virus, following the instinct of self replication and preservation. It sees all other life as a source of "food" and "parts". When "speaking" (Yes, it does happen). It usually "speaks" with an raspy deep voice with an ever-changing pitch over slightly static filled communication channels. It is theorised that when the "beast" speaks through a ship, it can also use the ships crew as a voice. Which also explains why it have several times lured ships to it. When larger beast ships commands lesser beast ships, there have been instances when the smaller ship uses the, now subverted, crews personality. This has caused sever demoralization to ships spying on the beast ships. This might also indicate that the crew might actually still be alive although converted to parts of the control network integrated into the ships system. We pray that this cursed existence is without independent conciousness. Goal The Beasts goal are simple, consume all life and create more of itself. Ways of avoiding infection Don't get hit, try and ram or overall nudge a beast vessel. An infected ship usually doesn't last more than a few minutes if no drastic measures are taken to remove the beast cells. Sealing off and purging infected sectors with superheated plasma have proven effective, although the collateral damage is severe. Running electrical currents through the hull also slows infection, but decreases overall output. Base Idea & Original source of inspiration As you see in the link below, the beast entity from the game Homeworld Cataclysm was my main source of inspiration. http://homeworld.wikia.com/wiki/The_Beast Category:Army